Prague, Czech Republic (CNN) — A shooter killed at least 15 people and wounded 25 others at a university in Prague Thursday in one of the Czech Republic’s worst mass shootings in decades.
Czech Police Chief Martin Vondrášek said at a press conference on Thursday evening the information he has received so far indicates that the shooter took his own life, but added this is not yet confirmed.
He also said the suspect has not been formally identified because of the severity of his injuries.
Emergency services told CNN those wounded had varying severity of injuries.
They said in a statement that nine people have been severely injured, five or six received medium-severe injuries and 10 were lightly injured.
The emergency services revised the earlier number of injuries and said they could still change given the developing situation.
Some students locked themselves in classrooms during the shooting, police said in an update on X, formerly known as Twitter.
A picture shared on social media also showed several students hiding, on a ledge high up the building.
The incident – at the philosophy building of Charles University – happened in the centre of the capital. The area is popular with tourists and close to major attractions, just across the Vltava River from Prague Castle.
The university was holding classes on Thursday and was due to go on Christmas break on December 23, according to a schedule on the university’s website.
Vondrášek said the suspected shooter was a 24-year-old male, who travelled to Prague from his hometown village of Hostouň.
Vondrášek said the suspected shooter was a philosophy student at Charles University in Prague.
The police chief said the authorities had information about the shooter prior to the incident, saying that the police received a tip saying the shooter was travelling to Prague with the intention to take his own life.
Shortly after that, they received information that a deceased man was found in Hostouň. The man is believed to be the suspect’s father.
Vondrášek said the police were aware that the shooter had a lecture at 2 p.m. CET and therefore evacuated the building where the lecture was meant to take place.
However, the police then received a call about a shooting in a different building, according to the police chief.
Czech President Petr Pavel said he was “shocked” by the shooting in a post on X.
“I would like to express my deep sorrow and sincere condolences to the families and relatives of the victims of the shooting,” he wrote.
The country’s Prime Minister Petr Fiala said he had cancelled his appointments and was heading back to Prague following the shooting.
Interior Minister Vít Rakušan said the shooting was not an act of terrorism.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen expressed her condolences, saying she was “shocked by the senseless violence of the shooting.”
Gun attacks are rare in the Czech Republic, which has some of the most liberal gun laws in the European Union.
In December 2019, a 42-year-old man killed six people at a hospital waiting room in Ostrava in the east of the country before shooting himself.
And in 2015 a man killed eight people in a shooting at a restaurant in Uhersky Brod before killing himself.
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